On the 30th of June, the Abolitionist Contingent broke away from the huge #FamiliesBelongTogether march, and protested at the fancy condo home of Trump’s senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. It was Stephen Miller who both designed Trump’s Muslim Ban and encouraged Trump to start ripping children from their parent’s arms at the border. Now he has to answer to the public at the very gates of his home.

The main rally at Lafayette Park was so massive that the staging area, portajohns, medic tents etc had to be set up at Farragut Square. Heavy pedestrian traffic was evident as far away as K street. The Abolitionalist Contingent joined in the huge march down Penn Ave before breaking away at 9th st, and when this was in front of Trump Hotel the crowd seemed to fill the street as far as the eye could see.

When the Abolitionist Contingent broke away, they marched up 9th st against traffic, a tactic that blocks pursuit by police cars and vans. From somewhere nearby a swarm of police bicycles and motorcycles came up 9th st and started hugging the sides of the march, in a tactic that looked eerily like some of the police behavior during Trump’s inauguration. This time though police did not open fire with pepper spray and grenades. When the march turned the corner and reached the palatial condo building in which Stephen Miller lives, police quickly set up a line of bikes defending the building. The cops acted like they feared an Occupy-style storming of the building which was never attempted. Still, being known as the originator of a policy that rips small children screaming from their parents’ arms is is close to the most unpopular possible behavior with the general public. Even a registered child sex offender who also killed puppies at Huntingdon Life Sciences for his job probably would be no more harshly regarded.

One of the chants outside Stephen Miller’s home was “Stephen Miller we will fight, we know where you sleep at night!” On a related note, the Washington Post reports that Wikileaks has published a dossier of the home addresses of many ICE agents. Some of them will no doubt be receiving similar protests from angry neighbors and local activists disgusted with their crimes.

Earlier, at about noon a single anti-choice disruptor walked back and forth on Penn Ave in front of the White House. He was escorted by a dozen or so cops, He screamed antiabortion slogans into his bullhorn and seemed to be trying by any means possible to incite a crowd that outnumbered him by tens of thousands to one. Even when he assaulted someone (and was not arrested), the crowd did not take the bait. He was booed and shouted down, but the discipline of the crowd held and nobody punched him in front of all those cops. Right-wing tricks like throwing one punch only to run and hide behind police are just too well known.

On the first of June, the Washington Post did cover the #familiesbelongtogether march, though it was exiled to page C1 while Trump defending ICE was on the top left side of the front page. The Post also mentioned that a few Democrats are now endorsing the demand to Abolish ICE, even though the Post was mostly covering the GOP condemning that demand. This, however, means serious pro-migrant and pro-Indigenous activists have succeeded in putting the total abolition of ICE on the agenda.

Farragut Square staging area for rally at Lafayette Park, seen from K Street just before NoonThis scene at the White House speaks for itselfDecolonize Turtle Island! ICE has no authority hereMain march passing Trump Hotel-view from just behind Abolitionist contingentBike cops pursue the breakaway march Bike cops on the sides of the breakaway marchProtesting at the home of Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller, originator of the family separation policy AND the Muslim Ban Another view of the home demo at Stephen Miller’s now even more overpriced condo Why we fight

Advertisements

Related

About dcdirectactionnews

This site is for news, announcements, and intelligence for the DC progressive community